A World Alone
by TheoriginalSteamboatwillie
Summary: History rewritten can alter a great deal in the lives of the characters we have come to know. When isolation and hurt build a boy much darker and colder than the old, but who craves and longs for love in the same ways, how will Hogwarts and the Wizarding world be changed.


So I'm going to keep you all just a bit in the dark about the setting and characters in this story but I will say that things progressed in a fairly different manner than cannon but that most characters will still have parts in this fic. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rights to any of the characters in this story.

He broke into a wild sprint across the lawn in the direction of the forbidden forest. For once the sights and sounds of his surroundings escaped his notice as a white-hot pressure squeezed his brain and blurred his vision. There were no words for what he felt. Anger, rage, hatred; they all fell short. So if words were inadequate he would not speak them. He needed to do something though. He needed a release and so he ran.

Down the gentle slope of the grounds he moved with a grace that it would seem only possible of an animal to posses. Escaping the notice of all in the castle but one pair of curious eyes. He left as forks were picked up for the evening meal and light ran from the sky, faster than he could ever hope to run. As the edge of the dark forest came abruptly he welcomed its depth and mystery and continued his mad dash through the low branches and gnarled roots. He ran as the trunks barricaded his path more frequently and offered less opportunity for alternate routes. The little remaining light was seemingly evaporated from the sky as the canopy above became wholly closed. Having no real sense of his location and no real reason to continue forward he let his pace slow until he found himself breathing heavily at the base of a large tree, head and back resting against its rough bark. He closed his eyes and tried to force out the anger as it ebbed back into his mind. Conscious thoughts fought for attention over those that begged simply for outrage, destruction and reaction. He shouldn't even be out here. He had no wand, no magical security blanket of power and strength. While he was not afraid of the forest his rational self still recognized the danger of trusting any living thing too much. And the forest was undoubtedly a living thing. He should relax, gather himself, avoid calling the attention of his surroundings and make his way out of the forest. But his limbic system was doing an exceptionally poor job of taming wild emotions and room for sensible thoughts began to shrink again as he remembered what had happened.

A powerful heat began to expand in him. He could feel it growing through his muscled back first. Like a torch held close to the skin it felt comforting at first but the heat soon seared him. Spreading out and down toward his limbs. He knew this pain, knew what was happening and he fought it as the building heat made his muscles contract and spasm. This was too much. He could not stop it this time. So he gave up the fight. The heat only stayed in him a moment longer before he felt his knees collide with a twisted root and his hands failed to stop his forehead from crashing into the dirt and moss. He was only slightly aware of the great explosion tearing through the dark sky above him. Eating away the foliage and his cover until the starlit sky was visible through the trees. Debris began to rain down but he had no strength even to shield himself. He knew it was definitely time to move but he had not the energy to stand nor the magic it would take to produce a simple spell to light his path. So he stayed, resting on the cold forest floor.

He imagined them finding him. The questions they would ask. The answers he wouldn't be able to give. Maybe he would say that he'd been attacked. But he had no real reason to have been out here to start. Maybe he was chased. He could tell them that he did not know how he had done it. Like the mysterious magic children were capable of when scared or angry, because really that's what it was; glorified wandless magic. But that would make it necessary to reveal the source of his anger and he would not give them that. None of these would satisfy any of them he was sure, especially not the Headmaster, and all of them would reveal too much when the poking and prodding was through. His only option was to find a hiding spot, until his rest was sufficient and he could make his own way out of the forest.

He waited a minute more and then began to pick himself up. He struggled first to free his arms from beneath his torso and then used them to push away from the ground. Now on his hands and knees he shifted and winced as his back muscles moved beneath his skin. It was as if every ounce of magic in him had burst through his skin and as if his back had let out the majority of that magic. He knew it was not true but it felt as though there wasn't any skin left, that the muscles and tissues were raw and exposed against his clothes. Trying to ignore this pain he pushed himself up the rest of the way and surveyed the area from his feet.

There was a ten-foot radius of torched ground around where he stood and the hole in the canopy was at least double that in size. There was no way that this would have escaped someone's notice in the castle, and though strange things happened in the forest all the time something like this was bound to have been brought to the attention of the teachers. He probably didn't have much time left.

He let his features become icy and cold and locked out the pain from his body. There was no time to be weak if he wanted to protect his dear secrets. Moving out of the newly formed clearing he proceeded deeper into the forest. If they were already coming they would undoubtedly stop to survey the damage before picking up a search and this would buy him time. He didn't go far though as he recognized the strength he would need to hide and after moving into the darkness some fifty yards he searched for a hole to crawl into or something of the like. Finding none, he realized his only option to be above him, though it would be a struggle to ascend any of the trees around him. He spotted one though, much closer to the clearing, with thick limbs beginning only five feet off of the ground and seemingly going up forever. He retraced his steps quickly and wasted no more time deliberating. Painful branch after branch he climbed until the fall from the tree to the ground below might kill him, or at least paralyze him, let alone the fact that he would hit a fair number of thick branches on his way. He rolled onto his stomach and hung his arms and legs down from the branch to act as counterweights. He sighed in relief. This should be high enough up that their view of him would be blocked by many leaves and branches, regardless of how close he was to the clearing.

His fought sleep as it rolled in but soon his eyes were being pulled shut and his head jerking down in sleep every couple seconds or so. He knew that he didn't have the energy to stay awake much longer and then embraced the darkness behind his eyelids.

When he woke he knew that no more that thirty minutes had past by the light and position of the stars in the sky, which he was high enough to now be able to see again. He shifted his position slightly and rested his head once more on the branch before a faint sound floated up through the trees. The investigation party, no doubt below deliberating on the possible causes and culprits of the destruction, must have broken his sleep. He strained to hear the voices and soon realized they were conversing in frantic whispers.

"What could this mean? Do you think he's…"

"No. It wouldn't be that. But I have no idea what else. What this could be."

"Unless professors…"

"Don't you speak! Don't you speak if you're going to speak their names!"

The group fell silent for a while and when they resumed speech again it was much calmer and quieter and he only picked up words here and there which gave him no indication of their discussion or plans. When finally he had not heard any voices or movement below him for quite sometime he let sleep overcome him again and relaxed against the hard wood that would be his bed until late in the evening tomorrow. Before slipping away he took the time to reason through the week so far. Today was Friday; today had been the last day of classes. He could afford this rest. He just hoped that his absence wasn't too widely noticed and that questions of him would not be too prying the next day. And with that his world was once more enveloped in black.

I hope that wasn't to awful for you guys to read and that there are people out there somewhere looking for at least a little more of this story. I'm writing it for a very selfish reason and you have my apologies on that. I was simply interested in reading this type of story, following the characters as they moved in this pattern and I have a tendency to forget the things that I see, read or write and so figured that I could come back to this story in a year or less even and read it as if it were not my own. As such I am happy to hear feedback and hope that someone out there enjoys it, even if that means your literary tastes are no good!


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